​According to preliminary estimates by UNCTAD and World Trade Organization (WTO), the world quarterly merchandise exports volume decreased by 0.7% in the third quarter of 2013 compared with the quarter before. At the same time, world merchandise imports volume growth remained positive at 0.3%.

Experts meeting in Geneva will discuss how the sale and trade of goods sustainably harvested from forests, if expanded, may preserve stands of timber as carbon "sinks" and thus mitigate climate change.

The globe’s longest-lasting and largest cycle of ship building finally began to slow in 2012, UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport 2013 reveals, but the effects of overcapacity are still being felt. Shipping rates remained low, threatening firms’ profitability, even as the volume shipped last year increased by 4.3 per cent.

Governments that want to pursue a path to a green economy must develop a green growth vision, formulate enabling policies, and develop a strategy to promote green investment opportunities, said participants at an UNCTAD regional workshop in Durban, South Africa.

UNCTAD and other Geneva- Trade hub agencies must find ways to harness trade and the private sector to make sure that the post-2015 strategy for helping poor countries is sufficiently supported by economic forces, experts said.​

UNCTAD’s first policy brief on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda highlights the need to reform the global economic and financial system, if the goal of eradicating poverty is to become a reality.